< previous page page_334 next page >

Page 334
very pleasant and amusing. John smiled also. Alinor watched the flash of his teeth beneath the dark mustache and wondered why they were not pointed more sharply. Surely a ravening wolf should have sharper teeth.
"Oh, do sit down, Lady Alinor."
The high-pitched whine drew Alinor's eyes before she needed, in courtesy, to lift them to the king's. It was Lady Ela, well-wrapped in furred garments, with a maid standing behind her so that she could lean back on that support if sitting upright became too exhausting. Another maid hurried up to remove a packet of cooling stones and thrust some newly heated ones beneath her mistress' feet.
"Do sit down," Lady Ela repeated, a trifle impatiently. "The wind has been blowing right through the space left for you, and my left side is aching with cold."
Instinctively, Alinor looked up at the cloth of the tent, which was perfectly unmoving, and then, as she turned to sit, at the pennons, which hung limp in the still air.
"I think I must have been mad to come here," Ela whined. "It is all William's fault. He insisted I would take pleasure in seeing the jousting. Why should I take pleasure in it? It will serve him right if I fall ill and die of this cold. And I know I will have a painful ague in my side for weeks and weeks, and he will sayoh, he is a monster about such matters!that no one could have taken cold on so mild a day."
"I do not feel very cold myself," Alinor admitted, "but I am used to riding out in all weathers."
"Oh, you should not do so," Isabella put in, leaning forward across her husband to discuss this entrancing subject. "It is dreadful for the complexion to expose it in that way."
"Ladies, ladies," John urged in his sweet, mellow voice, "please allow Lady Alinor to watch the proceedings. After all, she must have a sharp interest in them,

 
< previous page page_334 next page >